Moving an Acer and Japanese Maple

[Jenna]

I have inherited an acer and a Japanese Maple (unsure which types as they are not labelled), which I love, but unfortunately they are planted in a spot that I have earmarked for a water feature.  I am planning on making the water feature in spring/summer, but have seen advice that they should not be moved then.  They already have leaf burn, so i don't want to stress them out any more.  Can i move them now or is there a better time?

Any advice appreciated   

[NightHawk]

I'm not an expert on Maples or Acers Jenna so can't advise on that.

Keep checking back though as one of our more knowledgeable members will no doubt be able to point you in the right direction 

Laurie.

[ideasguy]

Hi Jenna and welcome to the world of gardening!!
Tara told me to watch out for frantic activity once you got started, and I see you have made a good start

My sister has a very nice Japanese maple in her rockery. She is building a new conservatory, and the rockey and its contents have to go, and Ive offered to give it a nice new home. See photo of that little treasure below.
BTW That little sentinel of a conifer might make its way here as well.
Our members love planbt ID questions if yoiu have any. Lets see if anyone can remind me of the name of that golden delight

I'm planning to move it in a couple of weeks time.
Its a weeping variety with finely dissected purple leaves. I think it will be OK at that time, as the leaves are now in autumn colour and will be fallling off gradually.
The other suitable time to try transplanting is very early spriing, well before they burst into leaf - perhaps at small (leaf) bud time or before.

How big (height and sread) are yours? What colour were the leaves before autumn colour? Are they dissectum or palmatum (five pointed leaves?
Heres what a palmatum looks like:



Heres a photo of my sisters (aka my new) dissectum:

[roiphil]

Hi Jenna, a belated wecome to the forum, as the acer and maple are already planted in the ground, i think (personally) the best time to move plants like this is after first frost, that way the plant is dormant, try to get as big a rootball around it as you can and as much root as possible when you dig it up, you may have to stake them when replanting (depends on plant height) bang a single post in the ground (before planting tree) with a tree tie around the tree and the post, if they were pot grown you could plant into your garden from October onwards, hope that helps some way
Phil

[Jenna]

Thanks for the replies

I think I know what to do now.  I have been terribly delayed due to the digging of my new bed taking forever and a day due to awful, awful, heavy clay soil needing some serious digging and forking in copious amounts of soil improver.  I am hoping it is ok now.

I was lucky enough to see George at a friends wedding at the weekend and he has just done the same job and so had pics and advice.

I am moving them this weekend hopefully, so we shall see

[ideasguy]

Hi Jenna, great to see you have recovered from the wedding celebrations - many thanks to Tracey and Jeff for inviting us along.
Tracey was gorgeous Post some photos here - I'll put one or two up when I get them uploaded, including the ones I took of the different stages of the move of that Japanese maple over the weekend. I managed to dig it out, transport it home and replant it just before heading off to the evening "do" at the wedding.

[ideasguy]

I'm very pleased to say the mature Acer dissectum with the purple leaves moved very successfully.
I dug around it for a couple of hours to get roots which extended to the spread of the tree.
I had to move it while still in leaf, but since it was October it was quite close to fall.
The roots were quite thick, but there were also some fine roots, so I was hopeful. I worried in case it would produce leaves in spring but the roots would not be capable of supplying the power to keep in going. I'm delighted to say it never looked stressed at any time!
Here's how it looks today, one year on, in its new location: